Editing history and clip analysis

Film editing is the process of working with raw footage and selecting shots merging them into sequences creating a coherent finished motion picture. The term film editing originated from the conventional procedure of physically working with film, but in recent times has also come to include the method of digital editing. In regards to film editing, originally all edits would be performed with a copy of the film negative, also known as a work print or a cutting copy. This required cutting and then pasting individual parts of film together using a machine called a "splicer". The film would then be threaded through a machine such as a Moviola seen here. Once the work print had been cut and edited fully, it would then be used to make something called an edit decision list. This would be used to help edit the original negative, splitting the shots into rolls, which would then be contact printed producing the final film print. In modern times many films are now edited digitally on software like Premier Pro, discarding the use of work prints and splicing film together. Instead the film can be optically scanned into a computer, and a cut list will be made by an editor, this method is called digital intermediate. Another method that negates the need for the splicing of film, and therefore saves valuable time, is in camera editing. This is the technique of shooting sequences in a strict order, resulting in the edit already being complete when the film is developed. Because this technique saves a lot of time as well as film its self, it also keeps costs down.
There are many differences between digital film making and using actual film. Originally when when digital filming became an option, the picture is gave was no where near as good as that of film which for years meant that film dominated despite its high cost.  However as digital camera technology advanced the resolution and clarity of the picture has come to meet the level of film allowing for its other benefits to be taken into account. By far the biggest advantage of filming digitally is the ability to see what you have recorded straight away, where as shooting on film requires sending the film off for it to be developed and then a day later you are able to see what you have captured, and if what you have captured isn't good enough, you would then have to re shoot requiring more time, more resources and therefore more money. However with digital film making you could have the footage with the editor on the same day, happy with the knowledge that you like what you have recorded. Another advantage that digital has over film is the amount of time you are able to record. With film cameras you are able to record for about ten minutes before having to load another roll of film into the camera. While with film you are able to shoot, re-shoot and keep doing so without the concern of a time limit. This has however also been seen as a disadvantage, with some actors and film makers saying they prefer the traditional method of filming for ten minutes then breaking as it helps them perform better. There are however other advantages to film making than just being traditional. Film offers a shallower depth of field. This means it is easier to create areas in the frame that are soft focus or blurry to direct the audiences attention. Digital films main advantages are work flow, price and reproducibility. Filming digitally speeds things, as said before with film before shooting a film magazine has to be loaded in a light safe area. After shooting is done the film has to be sent of to be developed and processed and in recent times digitalized so it can be edited on software like Premier pro. Where as if you shoot on video (digitally) you can skip these steps. You record straight onto an SD card and can watch the footage you have recorded seconds after capturing it. Price is another up side. Shooting film is incredibly expensive, a four hundred foot roll of 16mm film costs about $100 and can film for around eleven minutes. However feature films are shot on 35mm and cost around double the price, meaning you are paying around $200 for every eleven minutes you shoot. Where as in digital film making the media is usually stored on SD cards which can be used over and over again. Reproducibility is also an advantage for digital filming, video can be copied over and over again inexpensively with out any loss of quality unlike film. The other main difference between film and video are the ways in which transitions are made. With actual film editing performing a cut requires cutting bits of film and taping two ends together two produce the necessary sequence. A fade would require placing one frame over another giving the effect of one frame fading out and the other fading in. With digital editing however these transition would be performed by software included in editing programmes.

Clip analysis
As filming has evolved since its birth different techniques have evolved with it. These techniques are rarely noticed while watching a motion picture, but have a staggering difference in how the audience perceives a film. To demonstrate these techniques I have chosen a clip from the film The Departed (2006, Martin Scorsese). One of these techniques or systems that has developed is the continuity system. This aids the audience in understanding the relationship between each shot, creating an orderly flow allowing the audience to follow the action without being aware of the careful construction it has required. Many techniques create the continuity system and one of these is the establishing shot. This is a shot that establishes the setting of a sequence giving the audience context and information of the location, time of day and the characters involved and will usually take place at the beginning of a scene as it does in my clip at 0.00 as seen here.

This shot is a stationary establishing shot giving us the location of the. Soon after this the shot switches from an establishing shot to a tracking shot, as the camera physically moves following Matt Damon's character into a building before cutting at 0:08.

The clip also has another type of moving establishing shot starting at 0:08. The movement is called a crab shot as the camera physically moves from one side to the other without any change of angle. This shot is also an establishing shot at it makes the audience aware that the action is now taking place in a new location, in this case the roof top of the building Damon's character has walked into in the previous shot. The camera becomes stationary at 0:15 and then cuts to the next shot at 0:18.

Another important rule that maintains the audience is unaware of any construction and that they stay immersed is the 180 degree rule. In film making the 180 degree rule refers to the on screen spatial relationship of characters or objects within a scene. A make-believe line called the axis links the characters or objects and by keeping the camera or cameras on one side of this axis for every shot of a scene, characters in the scene will always appear on the same side of the screen. This helps maintain the context of the scene as the audience will not get confused as to each character location, maintaining continuity. This technique can be seen being used in this clip at 1:24 

Here we can see the camera never crosses over the 180 degree axis and the characters position in relation to each other stay the same. There is also another technique that falls under the continuity editing label called shot reverse shot. This is a technique where one character is filmed looking at another character off of screen at which point the shot cuts to the next which shows the other character looking at the first who is now off of screen. Since both character are shown looking in opposite directions, the audience assumes they are facing each other. It also de-emphasises the transitions between shots so the audience perceives a continuous action which plays out linearly, in order and in a logical way. It is also an example of an eye line match. The 180 degree rule however is sometimes broken for specific reasons. A camera passing over the 180 degree axis is called jumping the line. This occurs in my clip. At 0:19 we see a crab/tracking shot with Leonardo Dicaprio's character on the right and Damon's on the left.

This shot cuts at 0:30 when Dicaprio's character hits Damon. The camera is still within the 180 degree axis however but it is enough to give the illusion that contact was actually made.

This shot ends at 0:31 and cuts to the next shot which does slightly break the 180 degree rule as seen here.

As seen here the camera has just crossed the axis however this is for a reason. The sequence that is made up of those three shots is a match on action and breaking the 180 degree rule was uses to perform it. A match on action shot is simply a shot that portrays the action of the previous shot from a different perspective. In this case the action was the punch performed by Dicaprio on Damon. Matching on action gives the impression of continuous time when watching the edited film. Having the character begin an action in one shot and carry it through to the next shot creates something called a visual bridge. This in turn distracts the viewer from noticing the cut and from noticing any continuity errors between the shots. The last technique falling under that of continuity is motivated editing. This is a method that motivates what the audience see or hear. An example is an eye line match cut like the shot reverse shot mentioned before that takes place at 1:27 through to 2:14.

Making sure the audience identifies with the main characters in a movie is vital because it keeps them immersed and involved with the film. There are four main techniques used to do this. The first is screen time. This purely refers to how much time a character or object has on screen and therefore how much time they are exposed to the audience. In my clip the characters that are on screen the most are the main protagonist of the film being Leonardo Dicaprio and the main antagonist Matt Damon. Obviously the more screen time a character has the more time the audience has to identify, relate and get to know that character, and therefore there is a higher chance of audience members becoming emotionally invested in said characters. Close ups are another method that aid the audience's identification with a character as enables an audiences to see emotions. An example of a close up can be seen here at 1:02 as well as 2:38.

As seen here we can see very clearly the emotions that our characters are displaying, and therefore on an emotionally level we as the audience relate to them more then say a character we see from distances like medium and long shots. Point of view shots also help us connect with main character as it puts us in there shoes there are two point of view shots that take place just before the climax of the seen as Damon's character is handcuffed in the elevator at 2:51 which cuts also at 2:51 to a point of view shot of the elevator floor tracker seen here.

The last technique is called a reaction shot. This is a shot that cuts away from the main action of a scene to display a character reaction. In this clip there is not a transition that shows a reaction but a continuation of a shot where the action leaves the shot, and the character is left to react. This however still serves the same purpose switching focus from the action to that of the reaction of the character.At 3:10 the clip cuts to a close up of the out side of some elevator doors that then slide open acting as a wipe using part of the diegesis of the film seen here.

The main protagonist is then suddenly shot an killed instantly. The death isn't emphasised much, it simply happens in one shot. Because of the lack of build up to the death as well as the lack of focus on it afterwards it almost has a harder impact on the audience whose faces probably look similar to that of Damon's reaction after it occurs seen here at 3:10 to 3:15.

I think Martin Scorsese chose to keep the shot running instead of cutting to a shot of Damon's reaction because the continuation of the shot had more impact on the audience, like in real life, after the main characters death, life or in this case the film just goes on.

Also important in sequence are pace, tension and suspense. These effects are brought about through a number of different methods. Shot variation is one of those methods. This simply refers to using different types of shots, such as medium, close, establishing, high and low elevation and many more. From 0:00 to 0:08 we see first an establishing shot that turns into a tracking shot, this gives context and then follows the action giving context to the sequence. Next from 0:09 to 0:15 we have an establishing crab shot, the crab shot shows gives the audience a more detailed view of the setting as it reveals more to them, in this case it also builds suspense as once the camera becomes stationary it reveals Dicaprio lying in wait for Damon. The music at this point also fades out enabling the audience to listen intently to the upcoming dialogue that is about to take place. A different technique is a montage used to condense space, time and information. There isn't one is this clip however there is one in a different clip in the film seen here. This clip is also an example of parallel editing and crosscutting, cutting to different characters perspectives over the same time period. The montage starts at 0:56.

Providing an withholding information is another way of manipulating the audience's feelings. The scenes before and after Dicaprio is shot come to mind. As they are going down in the elevator we as an audience are unaware that another character is lying in wait to kill Dicaprio. So when the elevator doors open up and he is suddenly killed we are unaware who has actually kills him until the camera at 3:17 begins to pan upwards from a low elevation shot to reveal his killer a shown here at 3:20 

Another method is cross cutting. This is method that shows different shots at different location taking place at the same time. Cross cutting can add suspense to a film as the simultaneous action can have consequences that affect each other, as well as giving different perspectives on situations. The film American Gangster (2007, Ridley Scott) uses cross cutting to showcase the different character perspectives of the heroin trade in 1970's New York that can be seen at this link: http://movies.wikia.com/wiki/File:American_Gangster_-_Thanksgiving

Editing rhythm is another important way of dictating an audience's mood. Usually if there is a lot of action taking place there will be fast cuts. However in the most action packed sequence in the clip there are longer shots than you would expect to find. For example the shot in which Dicaprio is shot lasts from 3:10 to 3:15. The next shot involves a stationary low elevation shot of Dicaprio lying dead on the floor which then seen the camera slowly pan up. Again these transitions and camera movements don't match what's happening in the sequence. I however think this works because of that very reason, because there are no fast cuts or camera movements we as the audience are left to see everything fold out. I feel this method actually hits the audience harder because of the lack of editing. 

The way in which the story is constructed, relating to the time and space of the story including what is in the diegesis of the film, and what is implied.Basically these are techniques used to condense the time and space of a story, thus to keep the audience interested and entertained, without actually depicting everything that has taken place in the story.  An example of this can be seen at 0:06 where Damon character opens the door of a building. The shot then cuts to a crab shot of the roof of the building slowly revealing DiCaprio's character hiding, waiting for Damon's character who appears at 0:15. Now obviously in real life it would take far longer than 9 seconds to get from the bottom to the top floor of a building. However in the interest of time and entertainment the shots are constructed in way that condense the time and space of the story, while maintaining context. Simply said we as the audience know he has travelled up through the building, without actually having seem him do so. This technique can also be performed through the use of implying the occurrence of certain events that take place within the time and space of the story, but to not feature in the diegesis of the film. An example of this can be found at 1:45 where DiCaprio say "I got boxes of tapes, evidence other documents proving it". This implies that at some point, he has gathered all of this evidence, however this doesn't feature in the actual film.

Cutting to soundtrack in the method of timing cut transitions to match the music. An example of this can be found in the shipping to Boston video above. At 0:56 the sound level rises as we cut to another shot which is also the begging of a short montage. At 1:03 we have another cut that is timed with dialogue in the song. The effect this has is that it becomes more striking to the audience and helps translate the feeling of the scene to the audience. For example this film is set in Boston and the music used in this clip has hints of Irish music  which link well with the city of Boston's Irish heritage.

Using multiple points of view is another way of helping the audience focus on the action and on what the director wants them to. As suggested by the name of this technique, the method entails using multiple camera angles to display the same bit of action, thus giving the audience a greater perspective of the action, and engaging them more in the film. The film Life Of An American Fireman (1903, George S. Fleming, Edwin S. Porter) shows this technique being used at the very early stages of film making. It depicts the event of a fireman saving a women from a burning building; the audience first see the event from inside the building as fireman pick up the women and take her outside to safety. We then see the same action from outside the building. The use of these two views gives the audience more perspective on the action they have just seen and context in relation to the time and space of the film world. This technique now found in almost every modern film, especially action films has developed far past that of which is seen above. The technique is commonly used in fight scenes because of their fast nature. Using multiple view points in a fight seen allows the director to maintain the exciting pace of the fight, while still allowing the audience to follow who is who and what is happening. We can see an example of this from a clip of The Bourne Ultimatum (2007, Paul Greengrass) in which a fight takes place using multiple points of view allowing the movements and actions of the main character to be followed by the audience. Using quick cuts between these multiple points of view also has the added positive of making the film exciting. The fight scene starts at 2:15 ending at 2:43. We also see a shot in between the fight at 2:30; an over the shoulder of a character Matt Damon's character is protecting. This shot again is used to make the audience aware of the time and space of the characters in relation to each other, this is another prime reason multiple points of view are used. We also see a great example of cross cutting/parallel editing at around 1:45 in which we cut back and forth from seeing the action from Damon's point of view to the view point of some character tracking the action through cameras at a different place in the diegesis of the film.

   

A cutaway is another editing technique. This is the method of interrupting a shot of continuous action by cutting to another shot depicting something else. This is then usually followed by a cut back to the original shot. The shot that is "cutaway" to doesn't give any necessary or extra action to the scene, however allows for a longer sequence. It also allows for a change of pace in the main action of the film as well as allows for any unwanted parts of the film to be covered by the cutaway. The cutaway will usually depict something that is in the same location as the main action as it allows for this cut back. An example of a cut away can be seen here in this clip from The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola) at 2:15.

Jump cuts are another editing technique that it occasionally used although not as often as some of the others. This is because the method is considered a violation classical continuity editing. A jump cut is simply a cut between two sequential of the same subject where the camera is in a slightly different positions. This edit gives the effect of jumping forward in time. Because editing is by the majority considered to unnoticeable and constructed in a way that makes the film seamless, the jump cut technique is rarely used in mainstream films. The technique however is commonly found on you tube vlogs. Because these vlogs don't have stories or a narrative the use of jump cuts and lack of fluidity brought about by a jump cut doesn't negatively effect the content. An example of a jump cut beingused in a film can be seen here.